Queen Confirms Four Shows With Adam Lambert As Frontman

performs onstage during the MTV Europe Music Awards 2011 live show at the Odyssey Arena on November 6, 2011 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

(Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

The surviving members of Queen were scheduled to perform with American Idol alum Adam Lambert at Sonisphere before the U.K. music festival was canceled late last month. But that doesn’t mean Brian May, Roger Taylor and the rest of Queen won’t still play shows with the theatrical pop star as their frontman.

Speaking to Billboard, drummer Roger Taylor said that despite the Sonisphere cancellation, the band and Lambert will play four European shows this summer, including one in Kiev, Ukraine alongside Elton John. Queen and Lambert’s previously-scheduled June 30th show in Moscow, Russia is also still on, and in place of Sonisphere, they’ll be adding two early July shows in London at the Hammersmith Apollo. Details surrounding the two London shows and the Kiev show with John are to be announced imminently.

As for Lambert filling in for the late (and beloved) Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, Taylor said, “We’re really excited about it. Adam… of course, he has this unbelievable range, like Freddie had range. Adam can really cover it. He’s an extraordinary singer and a real talent. I feel he fits into our sort of theatricality.”

The future of Queen fronted by Adam Lambert is still up in the air, with no U.S. shows announced. As Taylor says, “we’re just going to see what happens, how well it goes, how we get on.”

The “Bohemian Rhapsody” rockers have “gotten on” with Lambert previously, first collaborating for a performance during the 2009 American Idol finale and again last year at the MTV Europe Music Awards.

However, Queen and Lambert both have busy months ahead of them, with the latter releasing his second album — Trespassing — next month. In addition to their Queen Extravaganza tribute tour kicking off across North America next month, the members of Queen reveal that they’ve been asked to take part in the closing ceremonies for the London Summer Olympics.